Putin and Blair are the joint rulers of nuclear la-la land

President Putin had a moment of self-deceiving nostalgia last week

In the movie Sunset Boulevard Gloria Swanson plays a Hollywood has-been who pathetically deludes herself that she is about to be recalled from retirement to star again on the silver screen. In a deeply poignant scene she fantasises that the paraphernalia of film-making has once more been assembled for her big moment. "All right, Mr DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up."

President Vladimir Putin of Russia seemed to be going through a similar moment of self-deceiving nostalgia when he warned the West last week that he would return to the former practice of targeting his country's nuclear weapons on European cities. What role did he think he was playing? Nikita Khrushchev, circa 1962?

It is a long time since we needed to give serious thought to Russian missiles hurtling through the air towards us. Stripped of its communist ideology Russia lacks the zeal to commit itself to a war in